Why does it matter that President Obama’s defense of open government was framed as an attack on the GOP and couched within a campaign-style celebration of the achievements of the Democratic Party? Because while normal political conflicts within our democratic system—conflicts over guns, healthcare, or abortion—can be won by partisan base mobilization, fights as fundamental as the existence of the liberal order must be decided by consensus. The result of labeling the center-left as “pro-democracy” and dissenters as “authoritarian” will be to strip those terms of their meaning, and even impel the right to embrace the illiberal label—much as relentless Republican characterization of Democratic policies as “socialism” may have helped drive the rise in the number of Americans who identify as such, and Hillary Clinton’s infamous “deplorable” remarks became a proud rallying cry for Trump supporters. As Alina Polyakova and Peter Kreko wrote earlier this month of anti-Europe parties on the other side of the Atlantic: “By trying to simply dismiss [populist] initiatives out of hand as ‘illiberal,’ mainstream politicians have given populists further ammunition. If trying to address the legitimate concerns of my people is illiberal, politicians like Hungary’s Viktor Orban are saying, then I am guilty as charged of illiberalism.”
From: The Danger of President Obama’s Farewell Address – The American Interest
